I first saw this idea about putting Reagan on the Trillion dollar coin proposed right here today, and while this idea was likely proposed in jest, it is actually a quite good and quite feasible idea, and I really mean it!
I have been a coin collector/investor for over 30 years, and here is what I know about the process of putting images of American presidents on US coins.
Originally, America used abstract conceptual imagery on its coins, starting with many different abstract artistic depictions of the concept of "Lady Liberty".
Then, America started depicting Native Americans (so-called "Indian head" coins) on many of its coins. The history & sick irony of America depicting Native Americans, (a people whom America committed a genocide against) on American coinage is a subject which deserves its own diary, but for now, consider the humble "Buffalo nickel" US coin, introduced in 1913. Its front side (technically called the "obverse" side), was a head bust of a Native American, and its back side (technically called the "reverse" side), was a depiction of a Buffalo animal. Great. How ironic. America ruthlessly extinguishes both the Native American and the Native American's prime food source, the noble Buffalo, and then pays honor to both via the same American coin!
(read more below the orange ploopie.)
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